


Lake Erie

by Drowned_in_Feels



Category: The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: Fish, Gen, Life Crisis, Ohio, Sulking, Swearing, Water, Worry, contains spoilers for s1, i love these kind of tags that are really short and stupid yet somehow marked common, rape mention, rated t for rape mention and swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-05 02:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20481647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drowned_in_Feels/pseuds/Drowned_in_Feels
Summary: The Deep is trying to adjust to living in Sandusky, Ohio, and by adjusting I mean sulking at the bottom of the nearest body of water and contemplating how his life turned to shit and if he can even still consider himself a hero.





	Lake Erie

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished watching the show and I absolutely loved it. I had to write something for it and Kevin was the character that I found the most interesting so this happened. Enjoy! :D

Kevin was sitting at the bottom of Lake Erie, which had become his go-to hiding spot. He hated it here. He much preferred New York, even though the water in the bay wasn't very clean. But there, he at least had access to the Atlantic Ocean! He could simply swim everywhere, if he wanted to. And yes, he tried to avoid the Hudson as much as possible, the water was so muddy he could barely see his hands in front of his face. But New York was his home after all.

Sandusky, Ohio, was not his home. And it never would be. Sure, Lake Erie offered a more pleasant swim: less pollution and since it was a freshwater lake, there was no salty aftertaste in his mouth when he got out.

But there was nothing to do for him here! No robberies, no smugglings, no crime. The closest thing to criminal activity were the obnoxious teenagers in Cedar Point who kept throwing their trash into the ocean. Of course, they always wanted him in the theme park or in front of it, advertising their stupid water rides. He was so sick of it.

And that's why he came here, to the bottom of Lake Erie, where no other human could bother him. He wondered for how long he could stay down here before they would even notice he was gone. His record was seven hours. Then he had gotten hungry and gone back up to grab some fast food.

He leaned back. There wasn't much to lean back on though. He had found a relatively smooth spot on a rock formation that he could sit on but it obviously wasn't as comfortable as a proper chair or bed.

A couple of catfish swam by.

“Hey, how's it going?”, said Kevin. He was always happy to chat to some aquatic animals. They usually felt honoured to be spoken to by a human, or a supe in his case. And it felt nice to be the most important superhero to somebody for once. In the water, nobody cared about Homelander. Down here, he was Number #1 and it felt amazing.

One of the catfish turned to look at him. “You back down here again, Kev?”

“Yup”, he replied, “you know I love hanging out here.”

“Don't you have anything better to do?”

For a second, Kevin was stumped. He didn't know what to say. He had never been sassed by a fish before.

The catfish quickly added: “I don't mean to offend, of course! I was just wondering why a superhero as great as you has so much time on his hands.” The fish paused, probably realising that that didn't exactly sound any better. “I mean, of course it is every hero's right to relax after a long day of fighting crime and doing good and – and being a hero!”

Kevin sat up straight to address the catfish. “Listen - “

“Please take my apologies!” And before Kevin could respond with anything, the catfish had swam off, together with the rest of its group. In the distance he could hear the other fish scolding the one who had spoken up for talking to him like that.

Kevin sighed. Great, so he wasn't loved and admired down here, he was feared.

How did he even end up here, in stupid Sandusky? How did his life turn to shit? It all started when Starlight joined the Seven. Fucking Starlight. She ruined everything.

Well, technically, Kevin was the one who made her do the thing that ruined everything but if she had just kept her goddamn mouth shut, he would still be living in New York. She was the reason why he went from being one the most prestigious superhero groups on the planet, to being harassed and insulted at gas stations. He used to fight crime in the Big Apple! Now, he spent most of his days sulking at the bottom of a lake.

To relieve some of his frustration, he decided to swim a few laps around the lake. Maybe that could clear his head. Make him somehow see the good in this situation.

When he had started working with the Seven, he had had so many big dreams about his life as a famous superhero. He wanted to change some lives, fight crime, do good. He had plans to stand up for the creatures of the sea, give them a voice in the human world, advocate for their well-being and for the importance of keeping our beaches and waters clean.

And now where was he? Dumped in the middle of nowhere in Ohio, like a cigarette butt, carelessly flicked into the ocean. And what had he achieved in all of these years of working with Vought? The beaches weren't any cleaner, dolphins and whales were still held in unfit captivity across the country but hey, at least they got a ton of advertising for their goddamn water parks. Kevin wasn't sure he could even still consider himself a hero.

As he was swimming through the lake, he heard a faint cry just a few yards away from him. He followed the cry and quickly realised that somebody was calling for help.

Kevin sped up his strokes and soon found a Largemouth Bass that had gotten itself stuck in one of those plastic six pack rings. Kevin sighed. Fucking litterers. If he could single-handedly make every piece of plastic on this planet disappear, he wouldn't hesitate. So many of his friends had died from accidentally swallowing small pieces of plastic or from getting stuck in some trash somewhere, it was truly disheartening.

Kevin approached the bass. “Hey, buddy, don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of there.”

“Kevin! Oh my goodness, thank god you're here!” The bass was exasperated. “I don't know how I got here. I was just – just swimming along and then, I don't how, I couldn't move and I found myself in this contraption! And I didn't know what to do and I panicked and I thought this was going to be the death of me. But now you're here and -”

The bass continued rambling while Kevin nodded empathically and calmly wriggled its body free from the plastic rings.

“There you go. All good.” Kevin smiled widely while the bass started happily swishing around him.

“Thank you! You're the best! Thank you so much!”

“You're welcome”, Kevin replied as the bass continued thanking him profusely.

“Seriously, thank you for saving my life.” The bass nestled up to his face in what Kevin assumed to be the fishy equivalent to a hug. “I don't know what I would do without you. What all of us down here would do without you. Thank you for coming here and looking out for us. We really needed you here.” And with that, the bass swam off into the depths of Lake Erie.

Kevin was left pondering about the fish's words. Maybe he did kind of make a difference in the world. He didn't have to save the entire country like Homelander to be a superhero. Maybe it was enough to just keep an eye out for the fish who needed someone to help them out every now and then. And maybe it was true that nobody cared about him on the grand scheme of life but Kevin was pretty sure that at least this one bass at the bottom of Lake Erie considered him a hero.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I know it's not my finest work but I felt like writing it so who cares. Feel free to leave some feedback. :) <3


End file.
